Going Up, Going Down
by SilverWolf7
Summary: The Doctor thinks of Rose and her boyfriends and decides not to start a relationship with her. Part of my Alternatives series.


My Alternatives fic for the episode The Long Game.

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Going Up, Going Down

"He's your boyfriend," he said.

"Not anymore, he's not," Rose replied in all seriousness, and he frowned.

He hadn't meant it in the way in which she should pick the boy up and drag him off to the TARDIS or anything. He had meant it in the way that she had bad taste in men. Well, by his tastes they were bad anyway.

First there was Mickey Smith. The idiot. The coward so cowardly, he'd grab hold on to his girlfriend and beg her not to leave with him, because he was alien.

Not that he could really blame Mickey for that. The boy had just plain been scared out of his wits and had no idea what had been happening, unlike Rose, who had him with her and at least understood on some level what was going on.

Mickey had been held captive by a living pile of plastic, had a dummy made in his form and put in his place. He had no idea that Rose hadn't had the slightest clue that the plastic Mickey wasn't the real one. Poor lad would probably have a broken heart over that if he found out. If he didn't already, that was.

He had seen that with his own eyes. Rose had had no clue, didn't listen to anything the plastic Mickey was going on about and changing the whole conversation to her instead. It had been so automatic that he knew that it probably always happened.

He didn't think Mickey would ever get a word in edgewise in a normal conversation with her. Rose had used him, quite clearly, as a doormat. And Mickey the Idiot had taken it. Hence him being an idiot.

And now there was Adam. Adam the genius kid from Earth, that she had started sleeping with as soon as he had boarded the TARDIS. Adam who, upon finding out where and when he was, had fainted. Fainting was a perfectly normal experience given the circumstances. Rose made it sound like it was the worst thing in the world to have done in her presence.

The Doctor picked up the still unconscious boy and carried him to the nearest seat. He started coming round soon after. Hopefully after sampling some of the food and drink, Adam would get better acquainted with the idea of space time travel, and be well enough to carry on.

First though, he'd do some exploring. Something was not quite right about where they were, though he knew he had the right time and place...

He left Rose with Adam, hoping somehow that Rose would take Adam back, and trying not thinking on what it would mean about him if Rose decided to date him.

It would definitely be a big step up for Rose, if she did take him as a boyfriend. The main problem was that while he did feel something for her, he didn't want to start anything. It was too soon after the War, and he really couldn't just start a relationship, with a human no less, until he felt more emotionally stable and ready for it.

He didn't think that'd happen any time soon.

Add on to that the fact that, for him, it'd be a huge step down...well, it wasn't _right_.

It wasn't that he didn't like humans, or could love a human. He could and had done it before. It was the wrong type of circumstance. And Rose...Rose was the wrong type of girl.

She had dragged Adam on board to get him jealous. Time Lords were rather territorial creatures when in a relationship and couldn't stand sharing a partner. If it was clear that they were broken up, sure, have at it, but to have sex with Adam in a way to try and get him was bad form. It was bad form in the human sense of the word as far as he knew. He could have that wrong though...

Finding out more about the satellite they were on pulled his mind away from what a relationship with Rose would mean. But afterwards, before he had gone back to them, he had decided one thing. He would never give in to Rose.

He morally couldn't do it.

He also knew Rose couldn't see that and would keep on trying to use the same tricks on him.

She was treating him like a bloke she might know on Earth that would take it. Well, she knew he wasn't human, knew he wasn't an ordinary man and should know by now that aliens have different customs.

Sometimes you just can't teach some people...


End file.
